ABOUT

Born in Poland, Ania Vu (née Vu Dang Minh Anh) is currently a Ph.D. candidate in composition as a Benjamin Franklin Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Her recent music explores different notions of time, musical energy related to form, and wordplay in vocal music set to her own text. Her current mentors include James Primosch and Anna Weesner, and her past teachers include Amy Williams, Robert Morris, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Oliver Schneller, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, and David Liptak. She completed her BM in 2017 with distinction, double-majoring in composition and theory from the Eastman School of Music, and minoring in social psychology from the University of Rochester.

Ania is a finalist (2019, 2018) and recipient of an Honorable Mention (2017) from the ASCAP Morton Gould Competition Young Composers Awards, and the Belle Gitleman (2016), Bernard Rodgers (2015), and Louis Lane (2014) awards at Eastman. Performers of her music include the International Contemporary Ensemble, TAK ensemble, and the Iridium Saxophone Quartet. Her music has been featured at festivals such as Red Note New Music Festival in Illinois State University, SoundSCAPE in Cesena, Italy, and Women in Music in Rochester.

For more information about her piano background, performances, and teaching, please scroll down to Performance.

Outside of music, Ania has a passion for languages, speaking fluently in English, French, Polish, and Vietnamese, and having studied Latin and German. She also enjoys traveling (has visited 30 countries so far), wandering in all kinds of museums, and ballroom dancing.

(Résumé)

COMPOSITIONS

ORCHESTRA | SOLO, SMALL ENSEMBLE | ELECTRONIC | EARLIER WORKS

ORCHESTRA/LARGE ENSEMBLE

Symphonic Suite for Orchestra [2018]
Read by the Curtis Orchestra. April 2018
Duration: 7’
[Score PDF]

Fantasia for Orchestra [2017]
Read by the Eastman Philharmonia. May 2017
Duration: 8’

Dark Whims for Piano, arranged for Wind Ensemble [2015]
Read by the Eastman Wind Ensemble. April 2015
Duration: 3’


SOLO, SMALL ENSEMBLE

Tik-Tak for Soprano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Percussion [2019]
Premiered by the TAK ensemble at the University of Pennsylvania. March 2019
Duration: ca. 5'
[Score PDF] [SoundCloud]

Dragonflies for Saxophone Quartet [2018-19]
Premiered by the Iridium Quartet at the Red Note New Music Festival , Illinois State University. February 2019
Duration: ca. 8'30
[Score PDF] [SoundCloud]

Gra dźwięków, gra słów (Soundplay, wordplay) for Female Voice, Percussion, and Piano [2018]
1. Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami
2. Płakała Zapałka – text by Ania Vu
3. a może... – text by Ania Vu
The whole set premiered at the Penn Sound Collective. University of Pennsylvania. December 2018.
a może premiered at the SoundSCAPE Festival. Cesena, Italy. July 2018.
Duration: 19’
[Score PDF] [ SoundCloud]

Five in One for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano [2018]
Premiered by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) at the Penn Sound Collective concert of graduate composers. University of Pennsylvania. April 2018
Duration: ca. 12’
[Score PDF] [ YouTube ] [SoundCloud]

Against Time for solo Piano [2018]
Premiered at the Penn Sound Collective concert of graduate composers. University of Pennsylvania. April 2018
Duration: 7’20
[Score PDF] [YouTube] [SoundCloud]

String Quartet no. 1, four movements [2016]
Performed at Hatch Hall, Eastman School of Music, May 2017
Premiered at the Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music. April 2016
Duration: ca. 17’
[Score PDF] [YouTube] [SoundCloud]

Mrs. and Mr. Potato Head for Flute and Bassoon [2015]
Commissioned by the Museum of Play in Rochester, NY
Premiered at the Museum of Play, Rochester. November 2015
Duration: ca. 5’

Espace for solo Piano [2015]
Duration: 6’

Paroles du Chagrin for Soprano and Piano [2014]
1. Je suis comme je suis – Jacques Prévert
2. Déjeuner du matin – Jacques Prévert
3. Il pleure dans mon cœur – Paul Verlaine
4. Le ciel est par-dessus le toit – Paul Verlaine
Performed at Hatch Hall, Eastman School of Music. May 2017
Premiered at Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music. November 2014
Duration: 14’
[Score PDF] [YouTube] [SoundCloud]

Dark Whims for solo Piano [2014]
Performed at Hatch Hall, Eastman School of Music. May 2017
Performed at the Women Music Festival at Eastman School of Music. March 2016
Duration: 3’
[Score PDF] [YouTube] [SoundCloud]


ELECTRONIC

Raindrops for Fixed Media [2016]


EARLIER WORKS (before 2013)

Somewhere over the Clouds for Saxophone Soprano and Piano [2013]
Performed at the Theater in Johannesburg, May 2015
Premiered at the Hanoi Opera House, December 2013
Duration: 4’45”
[YouTube]

Variations based on Pentatonic Scales for solo Piano [2012]
Duration: 6’30”
[YouTube]

PERFORMANCE


Besides a composer, Ania is an active piano performer and educator. She performs solo and chamber music, classical and contemporary repertoire, works of her own and of her composition peers. Her piano teachers include Amy Yang, Vincent Lenti, Irina Rumiancewa-Dabrowski and her mother Hong Anh Dang. She has taken lessons and masterclasses with artists such as Dang Thai Son, Wojciech Świtała, Thomas Rosenkranz, Andrzej Jasiński, Philippe Giusiano, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, to name a few. As pianist, she won several awards in national and international competitions in Europe, and has performed in the United States, Hungary, Spain, Italy, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Vietnam, and Poland.

In the spring of 2019, Ania and soprano Paulina Swierczek were invited by the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies to perform a program of Polish music at the University of Rochester. Ania played solo during the first half, and was joined by Paulina on the second. The concert featured works by Chopin, Szymanowski, Lutosławski, Moniuszko, Bacewicz, Palej, and three works of Ania’s. In May 2019, she received a full scholarship to be part of Curtis Summerfest’s “Chamber Music for Adults”, where she performed Kurtag’s trio Hommage à R. Schumann . The trio was coached by Amy Yang, David Hayes, Mimi Stillman, and Hanchien Lee.

Ania draws great satisfaction from being a music educator, teaching piano and music theory. She gives regular piano lessons to students of all ages, from young children to adults of various skill levels. At the University of Pennsylvania, she has taught an introductory course to music theory and musicianship, and an intermediate-level ear training and keyboard skills lab. In June 2015, she participated in Music Inspire Africa, a program where selected musicians traveled to Zimbabwe and South Africa to expose local students to classical music through performance and teaching.

Grażyna Bacewicz - Toccata from Sonata no. 2
[ YouTube]

J. S. Bach - Prelude and Fugue in F Major, Book II
[ YouTube]

F. Chopin - Barcarolle op. 60
[YouTube]

Justin Jaramillo - Proud Maisie
[SoundCloud]

Ania Vu - Dark Whims
[YouTube] [SoundCloud]

CONTACT


For more information or inquiries about scores, commissions, or taking lessons, please don’t hesitate to contact me at ania.vu94♪gmail.com (after replacing ♪ with @).